Spanish prosecutor opens criminal probe over Valencia earthquakes

MADRID Oct 4 (Reuters) - The public prosecutor in the
Spanish city of Castellon has opened an investigation into
potential criminal liabilities after hundreds of unusual small
earthquakes, possibly linked to a natural gas storage project,
have shaken the Valencia coast.

"We have opened an investigation after a meeting with other
public prosecutors in the region," Jose Luis Cuesta, head
prosecutor of the Castellon region, told Reuters on Friday.

The probe will try to determine the cause of the earthquakes
and whether any party could be held accountable, Cuesta said.

ACS declined to comment on the probe, as did Escal UGS, the
ACS and Dundee consortium that operates the storage facility.

The government has shut down development of the project
indefinitely and asked scientists to look into some 420
earthquakes apparently triggered by natural gas injections at
the facility meant to store gas in a depleted oil reservoir next
to a fault line.

"Given preliminary opinions by experts with whom we are
consulting every day, there is a high probability of a direct
link between the gas injections ... and the seismic tremors,"
Spanish Industry Minister Jose Manuel Soria told reporters after
a weekly cabinet meeting.

He said that surrounding regions had activated earthquake
contingency plans but at the lowest level given that experts do
not think the situation presents significant risk.